Brown University
Bucknell
Water Polo Advances to Finals at ECAC Championship
9/18/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Water Polo
Boston, MA- The Brown men's water polo team advances to the ECAC Championship game tomorrow afternoon after earning an 11-7 victory against Bucknell in the semi-finals, and then a thrilling 10-9 overtime victory over fourth-seed Johns Hopkins.
The Bears jumped out to a 3-2 lead after the first eight minutes, and extended the lead to 6-4 heading into halftime. The Bison outscored the Bears 3-2 in the third, but Bruno shut down Bucknell in the fourth outscoring the Bison 3-0 to earn an 11-7 win.
Leading the offense was Svetozar Stefanovic with three goals, followed by James McNamara and Dean Serure with two. Also scoring was Toby Espinosa, Gordon Hood, Ryan Gladych and Cyrus Mojdehi with one each.
Junior Max Lubin had an outstanding game in the cage, picking up a season-high nine saves in the four quarters played.
Against Johns Hopkins in the quarterfinals, the Bears found themselves down 1-0 after the first quarter, but the Bears roared back in the second to outscore Hopkins 4-1 to head into halftime with a 4-2 lead. But then, Johns Hopkins went off for five goals to Bruno's two in the third to take the lead, but the Bears buckled down and outscored their opponent 3-2 in the fourth to force overtime. Then, Corey Schwartz came up with a big goal for the Bears scoring in the first overtime, while the Brown defense remained solid to earn the win.
Stefanovic, Brandon Yoshimura and Schwartz led the offense with two goals each, and Marcus Gartner, McNamara, Hood and Gladych scored one apiece. Lubin had another outstanding performance in goal, picking up a career-high 12 saves for the Bears.
The Bears will now matchup against No. 3 St. Francis tomorrow at 3:40 p.m.
